Many thanks for the responses, fellas. All good advice. I'll definitely pick up those books.

To aid in my future posts, please allow me to explain my "plans" and relate some of my experience.

I've taken up car restoration as a hobby pretty late in life. Kids are grown and off to college (oh god is that expensive). I am not the least mechanically inclined person you'll meet, but I don't have a bunch of hands-on experience with this stuff.

I'm a software engineer by trade (read geek) but have always loved muscle cars. Drove a 69 Camaro back in the 70's and have always particularly loved the Camaro/Firebird look.

I bought Betty thinking she'd be a pretty easy restoration. Solid body, floors, etc. My intent was to basically strip 'her down, replace/restore/clean as necessary, then put 'er all back together. Simple plan, often difficult to implement.

As far as budget? I realize this isn't a financial investment. Well, then again, it's right up there with my house at this point...both losing money but I digress. It's a hobby. It is supposed to be fun and I need to work on the "fun" part. I fully expect my time to be worth $0.0000001 per hour when this is all said and done. I have allocated $8000 for the restoration.

At this point, the original 350/350 are working, but I haven't decided if they're staying. I have decided on a power front disc brake conversion (currently 4 drum), replacing all the soft bits in the suspension, the full interior, rewiring, and generally detailing/painting all metal surfaces. Will most likely go with a 4 speed overdrive tranny.

There's so much to this...I hope I'm not boring you all.

I picked up a 400 hood real cheap and love the look. I'm leaning toward a "400 homage" resto-mod with hood tach. Bought a 4bbl manifold at a swap meet which will go on the 350 or a motor TBD.

I'm into this car for about $300 plus purchase price ($5K) and am not even looking at my time as a cost. I hope this info helps set some perspective.

At this point, I find the most frustrating aspect is just not having any "wisdom" on how to go about things. Like removing the suspension with the weight in place. What the hell is a pickle fork? That kind of stuff. It's like I'm Helen Keller, bumping into all the furniture in the room. I guess that's just the way it has to be the first time.

Anyway, I really do appreciate the responses. I hope I won't wear out my welcome. Have a good day all.

Tom